1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus capable of handling images.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In conventional display apparatus designed principally for character display, the positions of character display are predetermined, for example 40 characters by 16 lines, and the position of a character is determined by moving a cursor.
On the other hand, in the display apparatus principally designed for image display, the display screen is divided for example into 400 by 800 sections respectively in the vertical and horizontal directions, and the image display is achieved by allotting each pixel of the image to each of such divided areas. Also the area to be displayed or to be subjected to image processing is designated in the unit of pixels for example with a joy stick coupler. Such method is not only difficult to handle for controlling the display but also requires a complicated and thus expensive circuit for control, in comparison with the above-described display apparatus designed principally for character display. Also exact designation of positions is not easy for the operator, since the display screen is very finely divided as explained above.
The conventional processing apparatus designed for processing both character data and image data usually employ the latter method principally designed for image display. In such apparatus the operations for characters and those for images are achieved by changing the operating modes. Consequently in the case of confirming an identification code for an image contained in a document during character editing, there has been required a complicated operation such as switching from the character editing mode to the image editing mode, or switching from an image frame to one for character editing.
The present invention further relates to an image reading apparatus for image reading by scanning motion of an image reading head. As is already known for example in the facsimile apparatus, the conventional apparatus of this kind are designed to read an entire original containing an image to be read.
On the other hand, in conventional apparatus capable of reading an image by designating a part of the original, the position and dimension of the image to be read are designated by numerals. Otherwise appropriate marks indicating the area of the image to be read are inscribed in the original, and the desired image area is read by detecting the marks at the image reading. However the former method is defective in that a desired area of the original can only be read if the operator measures the position and the dimension of the image beforehand and if the original is exactly set on the reading apparatus. On the other hand the latter method is defective in that the apparatus becomes inevitably expensive because of the mechanism for detecting the marks indicating the image to be read, and still the possibility of erroneous detection is unavoidable.